OR CANINE MADNESS. 235 



clotted vvitli grumous spots, and adhesions are formed between the 

 parts from the coagulable lymph thrown out. The liver, pancreas, 

 spleen, and omentum, but particularly the former, are often in- 

 flamed. The kidneys usually escape, neither is the bladder in 

 general attacked, but the urine contained is often deeply tinged 

 with bile from the hepatic affection. 



The bodies of those dogs who die of this disease soon become 

 putrid ; but there is no peculiarity of smell attending them : neither 

 are they so offensive as I have often witnessed them in other cases 

 of inflamed bowels, particularly of that kind produced by mineral 

 poisons. I have frequently offered to a healthy dog various parts 

 of the body of rabid dogs, but I could never distinguish any marks 

 of dread or disgust; I am, therefore, convinced that, living or 

 dead, there is nothing in the smell that characterises rabies from 

 one to the other, as has been so often alleged, among the other 

 vulgar errors held forth. 



Inquiry into the Morbid Action of the Rabid Virus. 



Having already endeavoured to shew that the rabid poison is 

 only received into the system by the actual insertion of it by 

 means of an abraded surface, it will now be our endeavour to in- 

 quire its modus operandi when received there. This subject has 

 occasioned a diversity of opinions ; one of which is, that the rabid 

 virus is at once mixed with the blood by the absorption of the 

 lymphatic vessels, and that it afterwards exerts its morbid agency 

 principally on the nervous system, and on other parts sympathe- 

 tically. I long entertained an opinion that the rabid poison en- 

 tered the circulation as soon, probably, as it was received, exactly 

 in the same manner with the poisons of venemous reptiles and 

 other morbillae. Some sympathy, however, seems to be kept up 

 with the bitten part, without the agency of which the virus can 

 never germinate into fatal action. The wound, therefore, when 

 first received, not being under the immediate action of the morbid 

 matter, heals as other common wounds ; but, after an uncertain 



